The Turning of the Tide

The tide is turning: Whatever the hell that means. You would think that with something as huge and amorphous as a tide, it would be impossible to know if it was turning or simply adjusting itself in its comfy tidal recliner. Who comes up with these things anyway? I digress.

Here's the latest, just in from DC. The House (yes, that's the US House of Representatives) voted today to cut off funding for the war in Iraq without some evidence of an exit strategy. The House resolution also calls for the beginning of troop withdrawals -- though my sources aren't saying exactly when that might start. Still, it's the first sign of a backbone seen from Congress as a group. But there's still the matter of getting it through the Senate, which people much more informed than I am say could be a tough fight. Apparently it's likely that the Senate will reject the resolution outright or at best try to strip it of the most important bullet points (pun intended).

What's encouraging about this is that it suggests that the members of the House have started to remember what the word "representative" means. And perhaps realizing that another blank check for the war doesn't "represent" the views of the American people. You know, those people they were elected to represent. Now if only the sycophants in the Senate (Bob, Liz, are you listening?) could only get the message.

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Where Was I?: Turning to entertainment news, I once again find myself in the "am-I-the-only-one-who-didn't-know-about-this" section. Somebody recently tuned me in to a Canadian singer/songwriter named Kathleen Edwards. Now in case you were somewhere in the A.I.T.O.O.W.D.K.A.T. section yourself (sorry, I didn't see you there) she's been putting some great music out there for us since around 2000. And after a handful of downloads of ahem questionable legality, I was sold. Sold enough to order her entire catalog en masse from Amazon just about as soon as the last of these finished playing. The newest of her efforts came out in March of this year, and you can find a sampling of it here. My favorite will still be this one though:



The girl absolutely rocks. Her music is phenomenal and you should buy it.

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Knowing Hockey From Shineola: If you go back a few entries you'll find a whole dissertation on the NHL playoffs I wrote back in April during the first round. So far I'm roughly 50% right. It looks for all the world like Pittsburgh will rule the Eastern Conference, but as things stand right now Dallas (my pick in the West) is on life support, down 3 games to 1 to Detroit (bastards!). If things take their usual course, the Penguins will face the Red Wings for Lord Stanley's punchbowl this year. Which should make for an entertaining series at least. Just not the one I projected.

Along the same lines (sort of) I'm actually looking forward to the newest Mike Myers movie The Love Guru. Myers plays a guru from India who comes to America, then gets hired by the Toronto Maple Leafs to help them win the Stanley Cup. Don't worry, it's just a movie. It could never actually happen. But it may be the closest we come to seeing the Leafs break the curse in this lifetime.

In case you're interested, here's a trailer.

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The Latest Craze: Have you ever noticed that spam seems to have its own set of fads? Years ago it was ink jet cartridges. Then bust or genitalia enlargement schemes. More recently discount "pharmacies" are flooding in-boxes the world over. And the latest trend seems to be in "Faux-lex" watches. That, and preparations that "cleanse your colon". Okay, I could understand the fake watches, the discount Viagra, and even this gem that turned up in my mail this morning from someone claiming to be called "Adela Lowery": Please be informed that you should be extremely careful in choosing your penis enlargement method. (Thanks Adela, I'll do that.) Those aren't all that unusual. But this whole "colon-cleansing" thing is just a little too-o-o creepy for me. As someone I know used to say, "When the conversation turns to shit, you've skipped a few topics." I really feel sorry for these people who have hung their hats on cleaning out the intestines of the world. What a crappy way to make a living. (Come on, you couldn't see that one coming?) I shudder to think what the next spam-fad might turn out to be. I can't imagine anything creating quite the scary mental images that this scheme does.

Maybe it's just me, but I'd really rather keep my colon to myself. I'd rather you did too.Stumble This!

Out of Beta, huh?

Hopefully I'll have less trouble logging in now, eh?
It's been a while hasn't it? No, you're not that lucky, I'm still alive and kicking. But since blogging wasn't helping me meet chicks I decided to wait until I had something truly blogworthy to write about before I posted anything new. And this is it.
MoveOn.org has asked the entire bloggin' world to help put the word out on their Virtual Town Meeting with all of the progressive Presidential hopefuls. This meeting's topic is Iraq. Imagine a press conference with 3.2 million reporters and you can get an idea of the kind of chaos that might ensue. So my guess is that you're not going to get a question in unless you're really lucky or know somebody. But it's worth knowing where these folks stand on the issue -- especially since Il Bushe seems to be bent on staying in Iraq until the electoral process pries it from his cold, dead fingers.





This is one of those "Unprecedented Events" you always hear about, so I don't know what to expect from it. That's the thing about unprecedented events... but if you're interested in hearing what people who might be in a position to do something about the war have to say about it, this might be the way to do it. These people want your vote (uh, you do vote, right? good. thought so.) and you can't vote for them all. So educating yourself about their positions is the only way you can make an intelligent decision on which one best represents you. Despite what the electoral process in this contry has become in the last 40 years, it's still the most effective means of bringing about change in the way our country is run. But it depends on the voters being educated on the issues -- and not being led by the sound bite down the garden path to ruin. We've allowed candidates to do this to us because the typical American voter is lazy. We don't bother to research any of the issues and as a result we're swayed by catchy phrases and campaign bumper stickers. This is one way to change that -- even if it's only on one issue. Presumably, if this first event goes well there wil be others to follow on topics important to all of us. For now, I'll settle for a concrete plan to stop our role in the bloodletting in Iraq.Stumble This!